Burger King’s AI-written ads prove tech can’t substitute great ideas

Using artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize the future of marketing might be a threat to certain jobs, but Burger King isn’t buying into it yet.

In BK’s newest TV ad campaign, they claim that each spot was AI-written and created with artificial intelligence; an explanation that precedes some truly bizarre voice-overs, such as, “Bed of lettuce for you to sleep on, bed of mayonnaise for extra sleep,”and, “Burger King logo’s chicken is the new potato.”

The non-artificial people behind the campaign are the creatives at agency DAVID Miami, the shop behind several of Burger King’s most popular marketing stunts, including “Whopper Neutrality” and “Google Home of the Whopper.” And in this series of ads dubbed Agency of Robots, they prove that AI isn’t all that fantastic.

Burger King and DAVID Miami used high-end computing resources to train a neural network with advanced pattern recognition capabilities. They then fed multiple fast food commercials to the AI before it spit out weird phrases including “The chicken crossed the road to become a sandwich.”

In a statement announcing the campaign that will air during prime time, Burger King refers to the ads as the creation of “a new deep learning algorithm that could give a glimpse into what the future of marketing and communications could look like.”

Though it’s not entirely true, it’s still one big joke at AI’s expense.

“AI, bots, machine learning, deep learning algorithms, blockchain, among others; these are all topical as we explore our future in marketing,” says Marcelo Pascoa, Burger King’s global head of brand marketing. “But we need to avoid getting lost in the sea of technology innovation and buzzwords and forget what really matters. And that’s the idea. Artificial intelligence is not a substitute for a great creative idea coming from a real person.”

Math chicken tender +++

Whopper mansion title

Chicken fries beat potato loser

Chicken sandwich crossing encouraged

At the end of the day, AI doesn’t seem to be the best substitute for creative ideas.

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For the past decade I’ve been working as both a freelance and in-house Art Director / Senior Graphic Designer in the Greater Toronto Area. Collaborating with copywriters, web programmers, and marketers, I enhance client brand strategies and communicates the essence of their business through every concept.